Services

WMO CHy Advisory Working Group session: results relevant to the activities of the GRDC

The second session of the Commission for Hydrology Advisory Working Group for the fourteenth intersessional period was held in Prague, Czech Republic from 15 to 19 September 2014. Mr Harry Lins (USA), President of the Commission for Hydrology (CHy), opened the meeting on Monday, September 15 at 09:00 hours by welcoming the participants from the CHy Advisory Working Group (AWG) and observers from the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) to Prague. He expressed his appreciation to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) and through them the Czech Republic for hosting the session. He reminded the AWG members that we were now midway through the intersessional period and, while there had been many significant advances in the work programme, much still need to be achieved.

Review of activities with respect to "Data Operations and Management":

The CHy-14 Session offered an excellent opportunity to discuss river discharge data provision from the various National Hydrological Services (NHSs) to the GRDC. Existing contacts could be reaffirmed and new contacts could be established. A strong commitment from the NHSs to provide data to the GRDC was observed and the GRDC is now trying to follow up on all the leads.

Progress on the exchange of hydrological data and products, as well as protocols for providing information on data use. A survey was released in September 2013 on the exchange of hydrological data. Initial results were presented to the WMO/OGC HDWG at that time and were made available to the AWG. A list of commercial and open source software systems supporting OGC services for hydrological data exchange have also been identified. It was noted in the results that better engagement with developing countries through WMO Regional Associations is essential to broaden understanding of the value of, and to encourage the use of, WaterML 2.0.

Testing and applying WaterML 2.0 ... to become a WMO information exchange standard. ... The WMO web site ... will include updates of progress in this area, focusing on the current state of standards along with the examples of software that support the standard, with an invitation for other compliant software to be listed on request.

Monitoring and reporting on new developments dealing with data management issues, such as observations, data exchange and protocols, data transfer formats, data information, as well as the WMO Information System (WIS) and WIGOS. An awareness-raising article has been published in the WMO Newsletter, MeteoWorld, entitled Global Initiatives in Hydrological Data Sharing. An update to the Global Runoff Data Center’s (GRDC) Hydrological Metadata profile of ISO 19115 has also been released. The HY_Features: Common Hydrological Feature Model has been updated and released as an OGC Discussion Paper. It is planned to submit HY_Features for adoption as an OGC standard in 2015. CHy has contributed to the development of the draft WIGOS Metadata Standard as part of a cross-commission task team. The use of the WMO Information System (WIS) for registering hydrological data services has also been tested.

A community of practice on database management systems has been established, based on the open source MCH (Meteorology, Climatology and Hydrology) system. MCH, originally developed in Spanish and installed in several Latin-American countries, has been translated into English and French and installed in Ghana, Belize, Curacao, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, with several other countries to be added in the next few months. In all cases, NHS staff has been trained in the operation and management of the system.

The AWG also discussed the issue of national policies as they relate to making data freely and openly available and that the benefits of adopting WaterML2.0 need to be expressed with this in mind.